Jennifer Anne Zaide BSN iv2

disregard leave unattended to

 Unintentional act or failure to act as a prudent person resulting to harm to another

 commission or omission of an act, pursuant to a duty, that a reasonably prudent person in the same or similar circumstance would

 or would not do, and acting or the non-acting of which is the proximate cause of injury to another person or his property

 "failure to use such care as a reasonably prudent and careful person would use under similar circumstances." (JCAHO)

 A more general term referring to a deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable and prudent person would use in a particular set of circumstances

 The average judgment, foresight, intelligence, & skill that would be expected of a person with similar training and experience

 (+) negligence fail to meet standards (-) negligence meets standards

 Law of negligence is part of what is known as tort law tort French, means wrong

 In this case a mother made a routine prenatal visit to the hospital. While in the waiting room

 the mother complained to the nurse of severe abdominal pain. Over the next hour and a half the mother complained of pain five

 times, and each time was told she would have to wait to be examined. When the mother was finally examined the fetal HR was

 only 60-70 bpm. An emergency caesarean was performed but the baby was born severely depressed and hypoxic and

 developed seizures within the first hour. The hospital settled this case for $2M for severe brain injury to the newborn infant

1.Duty 2.Breach of duty 3.Causation 4.Damages

 Easiest to prove Nursing standards: internal or external

 Injured party must prove that a breach of duty has occurred Involves the matter of foreseeability

 Injury must have been actually caused by the breach of duty Most difficult to prove

 to recover damages, actual damages must have occurred to the injured party

 Article 19 of the Civil Code Article 20 of the Civil Code

 Burns Objects left inside a persons body falls

 Failure to exercise the degree of diligence which the circumstances of the particular case demands

 Failure to report observations Mistaken identity Wrong med., wrong conc., wrong route, wrong dose

 Defects in equipment that may result in injuring patients Errors d/t family assistance

 Administration of medicine without a doctors prescription Sample case: A case of negligence was filed against a

 puericulture center nurse in 1979 for injecting Penstrep to a boy who had a swollen foot. The nurse informed the parents that she was

 not a doctor. Upon insistence of the parents to have their child treated, she informed them that the doctor usually gave Penstrep injections in

 such cases. She injected the medicine without a doctors prescription. The boy died of cardiorespiratory failure

 secondary to anaphylactic shock d/t the injection of the drug. The nurse was found guilty as charged.

1. Res Ipsa Loquitur 2. Respondeat Superior 3. Force Majeure

 the thing speaks for itself Injury is enough proof of negligence

 3 conditions are required to establish defendants negligence: 1. Injury of such nature wouldnt occur unless there was negligence

2. Injury caused by agency w/in control of defendant 3. Plaintiff did not engage in any way that would bring about injury

 The presence of sponges in the patients abdomen after an operation

 let the master answer for the acts of the subordinate Liability expanded to include master

 an irresistible force

 improper or unethical conduct or unreasonable lack of skill by a holder of a professional or official position (JCAHO)

 Malpractice is a cause of action for which damages are allowed. (JCAHO)

 Stepping beyond ones authority with serious consequences Term for negligence or carelessness of professional personnel

 Lesnik (1962) Malpractice is used properly only when it refers to a negligent act committed in the course of professional performance

 To determine what is and what is not careless, the law has developed a standard of care which can be determined by

 deciding what a reasonably prudent person would do under similar circumstances

 Giving anesthesia by a nurse or prescribing medicines